According to a blockchain analytics company, sanctions against decentralised cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash were only partially successful in reducing usage, as reported by Cointelegraph.
According to Cointelegraph, in response to the crypto mixer’s involvement in the money laundering of criminal activity, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions against it on August 8.
According to a report released by Chainalysis on Jan. 9, the sanctions did have some impact because total inflows to the mixer decreased by 68% in the 30 days following the imposition of the sanctions.
Cointelegraph noted that Tornado Cash is a decentralised platform powered by smart contracts, but the company also emphasised that “no person or organisation can ‘pull the plug’ as easily on Tornado Cash as they could with a centralised service”
Chainalysis used the darknet marketplace Hydra as an example. In contrast, after German police seized its servers as a result of sanctions, cryptocurrency inflows to Hydra fell to zero.
In a different report released this week, the blockchain security company SlowMist also provided some clues about the kind of money that passed through Tornado Cash in 2022, Cointelegraph noted.
(With insights from Cointelegraph)
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